It appears that the past months of working remotely at home, in casual clothes, has worn out the limited Collection of Casual Clothes I had in my closet!
Since I have been on a #RTWfast since 2015, I am going to remedy this by putting aside my bag making and bag pattern designing, temporarily, and sew up some quick, easy T-shirts and yoga style pants!
I have pulled all the medium and light weight knits from my fabric stash and am determined to get a few tops and bottoms from that.
To start with, one of my favourite top patterns, McCall’s M7323, which I have traced, check the fit on, and sewn up before, a few times, like this much loved one here. Last time I made this top I had an uneven stripe to work with too. It was also full of lots of colour.
This time I decided to use this dark grey/white stripe light weight stretchy knit. I bought it because of the stripes. I love the stripes! The fabric though is a light weight stretchy T-shirt fabric with what seems to be heavy raised piping for the white stripes! A very strange fabric to sew.
I actually used my walking foot on my Janome HD3000 to sew this fabric. The walking foot did well with the light weight knit and the heavy raised piping.
Laying out my traced back piece was easy.
Matching up my cut out back fabric piece at the shoulders with what would be my upper front fabric piece wasn’t difficult. I just matched a series of lines on the back to the same series of lines on the front and placed the upper front pattern piece on top.
Now if I wanted to match the stripes on the lower front piece to the upper front piece exactly that would have been easy too. But what’s the point in that? 🙂 The pattern shows the stripes at right angles so let’s do it! To start, I had to decide which of the series of stripes I actually wanted to match up for the front to look its best and then I used my clear quilting ruler to ensure that my stripes were indeed at right angles.
When matching, I did not use the cut edges of the fabric, but rather pinned up the seam allowances so that the seam lines were what I was matching, not the cut edges.
My result .. the upper and lower front pieces will match on the series of lines of my choice at the seam lines.
I used single fold bias tape to reinforce certain seams, since this was such a light weight stretchy fabric for the most part and I didn’t want my seams to stretch out of shape.
The shoulders and bias front seams were all reinforced.
Single fold bias tape was also used on the neckline and sleeve and bottom hems.
A quick sew … and I’m ready to work comfortably at home again!
My next top in my Collection of Casual Clothes will be another favourite … Butterick B5988, which I have made before, a few times, like this one here. I still wear that blue print one. It is six years old now. Definitely not “fast fashion”. The Joys of Handmade!
Here is a horrifying article from “The Pretty Planeteer” on fast fashion, if you wish to learn more.
This time my Butterick top will be made with this black/white paisley medium weight knit. I cut it out a while back and remember now I had to carefully avoid some of the errors in the print – see the black blotch in the middle of the design?
Then on to sewing a couple of bottoms. Now I ask you … which pattern is your favourite for some yoga type pants? I have a couple in my pattern stash but I am curious … what else is out there?
Happy Sewing, and stay safe!
STASH BUSTING WITH THIS PROJECT? This Top used up 1.8 meters of my stash. So I still have 127.5 metres left! Good news is that I haven’t been buying patterns or fabric for a while now. I can’t even remember when. I have only bought some new fabric or cork to fulfill customers’ bag orders. Not bad, huh?
Love these especially what you did with the stripes. The Helen’s closet Avery leggings is one of my favourite patterns.
Thank you! I’ll have to go take a look at Helen’s Closet! 🙂
Good job on the stripe manipulation, that is certainly unusual fabric. I’ve never sewn leggings so can’t help there.
Thanks! I’ve got two lots of fabric, a grey and a black. Perfect for pants of some sort!
So inspirational. I have some knits like this and this top is so flattering on you. I’m on the lookout for this pattern.
Thank you! I hope the pattern isn’t too old, out of print, but surely there must still be something around. Good luck in your search!
That top is cool, with perfect, interesting, stripe matching! I don’t like clingy pants, so I don’t have a yoga pattern to recommend
Thank you! I’m sure I’ll change my mind on the pants pattern a hundred times before I get there!
Wow, Linda, the top looks fantastic! I especially liked the recommendation that you match the seams lines. Very professional. 🙂 .
Thank you, Susan! There is always an answer to a problem… sometimes a few!
Love your top Lynda! I have a few friends that swear by Jalie patterns for their yoga pants. I’ve never made them, but the Jalie patterns do seem quite popular!
Thank you! I have heard of Jalie. I’m going to check them out now. 🙂
Hi Lynda, I love Style Arc Barb pants for the fit and comfort. While not really a yoga pant, it wears like one. The crotch fit me straight off the pattern without adjustment. That’s saying something because I struggle with crotch fitting.
Love the top. You inspire me to try a littlie matching in my next project.
Donna
I’ll go take a look! There are so many wonderful recommendations here, it’s going to be difficult to choose! Thank you for the kind words!
That striped fabric must have been a bear to sew, I can see why you used the walking foot. Great result though!
As usual I was caught up with its appearance (bumpy stripes!) and it took some thought on what to do with it! 😁 thank you! 😊
Linda you are such a gifted seamstress!
Your blouse looks wonderful and I’ll bet it’s cool & comfortable to wear.
Thank you for choosing a practical, yet beautiful pattern design.
I have been intimidated by both knits and stripes and you’ve shown helpful tips when working with both!
Well thank you for your kind words! I am glad I can be of some help!
Lovely top Linda, particularly the pattern placement of the stripes. I’ve clicked on your link about fast fashion and fallen down a bit of a rabbit hole of reading first if all feeling rather smug that I don’t buy from any of the highlighted shops, then a little less comfortable as I continued on to read about the true cost of the various fabrics which we all love. Interesting reading and Thankyou for bringing it to my attention
Thank you! The difficult thing about it all is not only the cheap poorly made clothes that are being sold but the difficulty for us sewists in even being able to find out where our supplies and materials come from. I guess a good start is to make it yourself. At least part of the chain is broken with us. Stay safe Sarah!
What perfect timing with this post. I’m packing boxes because of a relocation. As I’m packing boxes with clothes, I’m seeing all these clothes I don’t wear because of working from home. I love stripes. As I was reading, I was admiring your ability to match the stripes, then you said, “right-angles” and you lost me. Way to go. I love stripes. You created a very pretty top. Very versatile too.
Thank you! Another fan of stripes, hmmm? That’s great! Maybe you should just wear one of your fancy tops someday when you are working from home! Good luck with the relocation!
looks amazing !!
Thank you!